Pep Talk
by Amaranth Traces
Summary: SamDaniel Established. Tag to The Pegasus Project. Daniel's upset after learning that the Ascended won't help with the battle against the Ori. Sam gives him a pep talk.


**The Pegasus Project – Missing Scene**

_Genre: _Sam/Daniel  
_Spoilers:_ The Pegasus Project. Also, relatively vague comments relating to everything before that.  
_Summary:_ Daniel's upset after learning that the Ascended won't be helping in the fight against the Ori. Sam gives him a pep talk.  
_Author's notes:_ This scene takes place after the end of "The Pegasus Project"  
_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Stargate or anything related to it.

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Sam had been looking for Daniel since she returned to Atlantis. Finally, she found him standing on one of the many balconies in Atlantis, overlooking the water. Stepping outside, she ran up to him, excited about their partial victory against the Ori.

"Daniel! It worked! We've established a permanent wormhole to the Supergate. And get this! In the process, we managed to destroy an—" Sam's enthusiasm evaporated as she realised that Daniel hasn't even turned to greet her. "What's wrong?" she asked, stepping to his side and placing her hand gently on his arm.

"The Others aren't going to help us," he said, staring at the horizon.

Sam frowned. "The other who?" As soon as she said it, she realised what he meant and her frown turned into an expression of disbelief. "Oh! I didn't know we thought they would," she said slowly.

Daniel finally turned to look at her; his usually clear blue eyes were clouded with frustration and guilt. Sam tenderly caressed his face, gazing at him.

Finally, he spoke. "For a minute there, I thought they might."

"What happened?"

He explained all that had happened – how Morgan le Fay had pretended to be a hologram, giving them exactly the information they asked for albeit not what they really needed. How he tried to convince her to get The Others to help fight the battle against the Ori. How he thought he had convinced her to help but then The Others had taken her away, and she was probably being punished for interfering, and how it was all his fault.

Sam wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled his body against hers. "Daniel, you can't do this to yourself. It's not your fault. She made a choice and The Others also made a choice." Sighing, she continued. "Maybe we can still convince them to help, or maybe we won't need their help." She wasn't sure she believed her last sentence. "We destroyed an Ori ship today." Sam looked up at him, trying to find that spark of hope that never ever left his eyes. "That's something, isn't it?"

Daniel kissed her and held her tightly. "Yeah, I guess it's something," he said softly, obviously still unconvinced.

They stood on the balcony in silence for a while, watching the waves, holding each other. "We've come so far and done so much," he said. "These Ori, though…" He sighed. "I'm scared, Sam."

"I know. I am too." She lifted her head from his shoulder and gazed at him. "But it's like you said, we've come a long way. We've defeated the Goa'uld and the Replicators; saved what – dozens of planets – from annihilation, including our own, I don't know how many times, we'd have to ask Teal'c. We've made it through invasions, blendings with symbiotes, body swapping, robotic clones, plots within our own government..." Sam paused and looked pointedly at Daniel. "Vala." He laughed.

Sam grinned, happy to see him laughing. "The point is: we're still here. We're still fighting. True, the Ori aren't like anything we've ever faced before, but at the time, neither were the Goa'uld, or the Replicators, or any other damn thing we've come across these last nine years. We'll figure this out, Daniel. We'll learn about them and we'll beat them. Saving the Galaxy is like second nature to us now. It's what we do."

Sam smiled at him, in wonder at her persuasive abilities. She had almost convinced herself that they could defeat the Ori.

"I love you, Sam."

"I love you, Daniel."

They kissed again.

"You make me feel like I can do anything, you know that?"

Sam smiled again. "With a team like ours, I think we can."

"I hope you're right." He tightened his arms around her waist and she rested her head comfortably against his shoulder, wrapping her arms around him.

Behind them, she heard a door open. They turned to see who it was. The uninvited guest was sputtering incoherently at them, and she rolled her eyes at the intruder.

Daniel waggled his eyebrows at Sam and lowered his lips to hers again. He dipped her back as he kissed her passionately. Sam ran her hands across Daniel's back and through his hair, moaning softly. After Daniel pulled her back to a standing position, they both looked at the flabbergasted man on the balcony.

"Go suck on a lemon," Sam said to him in a veiled threat before pulling Daniel's head down for another kiss.

When they came up for air again, the trespasser had left. Sam smiled at Daniel giddily. "You know, the very fact that we could make Rodney McKay speechless is proof positive that we can do anything."

"You make an excellent argument, Colonel Carter."

She looked back at the vacant doorway. "He might still be watching."

"Well then, let's make sure he gets his money's worth."

Sam let out a giggle as Daniel buried his face into her neck. _We **can** do this. We'll defeat the Ori._ She was surprised how certain she was. _Then Daniel and I can have our happy ending._

**THE END  
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